Expert: Dear Tabbi - 9/20/2009

Question
Hello, I have a 1 year old female cat named chloe, and about a week and a half ago I found a 6 week old kitten and brought her home. Chloe didn't like this at first but after just a couple of days she started to act like "mommy" to her. All seemed to be well Intel a couple days after chloe started to act different like she wasn't feeling good! She would sleep a lot more, but she was eating and drinking and going to the litter box fine. About 3 days after that she lost her voice, or her meow i should say! She tries to but nothing comes out. also there is a bad smell coming from her at times, and today she started throwing up! I'm scared the kitten might have have her something, but the kitten is feeling fine!I don't really have the money to take her to the vet right now, I have 3 children and i work and am in school. I will do anything I can to get her to one if she gets worse, but I don't want to go and pay 1 or 2 hundred dollars if nothing is really wrong with her, if you know what I mean. Please if you could help me that would be great!!!
Thanks so much!

Answer
Crystal,

I'm sorry I took so long to get back to you. I am not a vet and cannot knowledgeably answer medical questions so I forwarded your question to a friend that has worked with a vet for 17 years (which I do not normally do) to see what her opinion was. I got the following reply back:

"What the question didn't state was if the adult cat is vaccinated. But even if she is it likely that yes the kitten could indeed give pass on any of the feline viral or bacterial causes of disease . The time frame is correct for them. Loss of voice is seen in a good number of them. The generalized symptoms..gastro as well as respiratory may be feline Leukemia but I would not begin to hazard a guess. She simply didn't provide any history for the cat . Cats vomit for all sorts of reasons and pretty easily so I'm not as concerned about the vomit unless it continues.  But since she is not going to seek medical care there is little you can tell her besides the kitten very likely gave the cat something. They both need to be quarantined and most cat viruses are lifelong..She should not introduce any more cats or kittens into the household and these should not be allowed outside. Since the kitten looks healthy, feline leukemia is pretty likely since it can be passed and be undetected in the host..but most cat diseases have carrier states. FIV does as well.

I wish there was more help but if she not going to take the cat to the vet and get it tested there is little to do except not expose the cat or kitten to other cats. We can't fix this one..she can give it more time..worming them both would help because the kitten very likely also exposed the cat to worms. That could be what is causing the gastro problems and they are zoonotic as well so that just needs doing. A safe wormer please though. Strongid is good. Needs to be done twice..once two weeks after the first time.

Incubation for these diseases can be as short as 3-7 days so the cats had time."

I hope your cat is doing better by now. It really should be seen though. You might be able to explain your situation to a vet who will let you made payments. I would call around to different ones to try to find one that will. Or call some cat organizations to find out if they know of any cat clinics that could help you.

Tabbi